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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Another Look Book Reviews 2011 "Best Of" Book Recap

Since Another Look Book Reviews focusses on all kinds of
romance books from the past and the present some of my winning selections are books
that have been out for years.

For 2011 I have read a whopping 180 books! That’s 15 books a
month or around 3 books a week. So how do I recap all of the amazing books I read?
I decided to create a lexicon of “Best Of” in 10 different categories. So
without further ado, here is my Best Of list.

Disclaimer– In regards to the snippets you are about to read,
any grammatical errors are mine. None of the blurbs are copy and pasted but
rather me re-typing. Errors could occur even after my careful reviews.

Also the images I used were just internet images and I have
no idea who they belong to. If the images are yours and you would like credit,
please contact me and I shall immediately do so.

BEST FIRST KISS – Sheet Music by Tibby Armstrong (read April 2011, review here)

Kyra was a music journalist and David was a rock star. The
combination was powerful. I rated Sheet Music a
perfect 5 hearts and I remember months later that first anticipated kiss between Kyra and
David. I find musicians to be so sexy and David was smoking hot.

“First he kissed her eyelids. One and then the other. She
smiled and he breathed a laugh at her amusement.

Next he moved to the tip of her nose. It’s warm softness
brushed against his lips. He inhaled the sweetness of her breath, growing
harder at the anticipation of her lips against his own. No, he definitely hadn’t
experienced this in a long, long time.

He swept a series of kisses over the satin of her cheek
and along her jaw up to her ear where he whispered, “I want to taste you.”

If I was to give an award for worst title, “I’ll Be Your
Drill, Soldier” would also receive that award.
This book was fabulous. One of my favourites of the entire year and I
just found the title cheapened the content of the book. I’ll Be Your Drill,
Soldier was way more than a hot M/M erotic book. In fact, there wasn’t all that
many erotic scenes at all. My favourite part of the book was when Phillip and
Ryan were emailing one another while away at war. I am going to shorten this
tease but you’ll get the point.

“…and slide in as deeply as I can. I’m so fucking hot for
you right now I could burst. September – Just wait until September. I’m going
to fuck you until you walk funny. I’ll be home, Phillip. Don’t ever doubt it.

Ryan

Ryan, You know I’ve always found you and Phil insanely hot
but I always kinda saw Phil as the top. That was kinda hot. Tory

Dear Ryan, Your letter has been submitted and will be out “Salute
to our Troops’ Penthouse addition. Brendan

Ryan, When you check your email, make sure you are replying
to the right one, and don’t click “reply to all” Patrick

Ryan, Wow. Can I just say that was the best Christmas
present EVER. If you wanna write Phil another one like that please do. I’ll
even forward a good heading for you. Sandy

Oh man I love Lisa Kleypas books. I love her historicals and
Devil in Winter easily got a 5 heart rating from me. Evie and Sebastian take a carriage ride to
Gretna Green in Scotland to get quickly married and then the big wedding night
approached. There was a bit of delay regarding
the nighttime lovemaking because they ultimately passed out from being so tired and
weary from the vigorous journey from London. Oh that’s not to say, the next
morning things heated up.

“Lie still. You don’t have to do anything, my love. Let
me take care of you. Yes. You can touch me if you…mmm, yes…” He purred as he
felt her trembling fingers touch his gleaming hair, yhe back of his neck, the
hard slope of his shoulders.

He moved lower,
his hair roughened legs sliding along the insides of hers, and she realised
that his face was just above the triangle of her fiery red curls. Flooded with embarrassment,
she automatically reached down to cover her private area with her hand.

St. Vincent’s
erotic mouth lowered to her hip, and she felt him smile against her tender
skin. “You shouldn’t do that,” he whispered. “When you hide something from me ,
I want it all the more. I’m afraid you’re filling my head with the most
lascivious ideas…you’d better take your hand away, sweet, or I might do
something really depraved.”

There are lots of books that you pick up and really enjoy
reading but then once you start a new book, the previous book is all but
forgotten. Not so with Contentment by
Margaret Ethridge. The story focusses on Tracy Sullivan who has been married
for fifteen years and she really has it all. The great kids, faithful husband,
steady job, home in suburbs but due to the petty resentments built over the
years from her marriage, she is ready to pack in her marriage. She blows her oblivious
husband away with this news and Contentment is all about Tracy’s struggles to
find the elusive contentment.

I related to Tracy so much in this story in so many aspects.
I shared Contentment with some friends at work and they were sure Margaret
Ethridge wrote the story after them. Contentment is an excellent story for married
women.

“Whatever confidence Tracy had when she dashed out door fled
the moment the whip cord thin; I’m barely-old-enough-to-order-a-drink
salesclerk started pulling baby dolls, teddies and negligees from the racks.

Tracy gawked at the displays, trying to envision prying her
body into one of the scraps of fabric without the benefit of a crowbar. She
caught a glimpse of herself in one of the store’s many mirrors, and her heart
sank. She looked exactly like what she was: an almost forty year old woman
buying lingerie in a desperate attempt to salvage her failing marriage.”

OMG! What a series. What a series. If you haven’t read the
Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, you must. Do you hear me? You must! The
Fever series is not just an excellent series, it is EPIC. My words of praise
are the highest I can possibly convey. The Fever series are NOT stand alones so
start at the beginning with Darkfever and work your way forward. You may as
well get them all in front of you because they all end of cliffhangers and you
can’t breathe until you get the next book in your hand. The long awaited Shadowfever
was released in 2011 and although Karen Marie Moning will continue the series
with a spin off, the Fever series did draw to an end. Buy it. Now.

“He pulls me around and kisses me. "You're Mac,"
he says. "And I'm Jericho. And nothing else matters. Never will. You exist
in a place that is beyond all rules for me. Do you understand that?"
I do.
Jericho Barrons just told me he loves me.”

:~:

“Once, long ago in her world, a sunny day in spring was her
favorite, but now a sunny day in winter delights her more. It is the perfect
metaphor for their love.
Sunshine on ice.
She warms his frost. He cools her fever.”

I host a few book tours and I provide reviews for authors
that reach out to me on their own as they embark on their own personal book
tours. As such, I thought I’d make an
award for a book that I didn’t find but rather, it found me. I decided to
review Chosen when it was presented to me from the Bewitching Book Tours and I
was not disappointed. In fact I loved it so much I reached out to the author
myself and asked if she could send me book 2. Chosen is an action suspense
romance that took me on a thrilling ride I didn’t want to get off.

“They’re here,” Jake whispered in the monotone he used
when he saw things only he could see.

Emma grabbed their few toiletries off the stained Formica
counter, tossed them in the suitcasw, and zipped it closed. Lifting the
pee-stained mattress, she pulled out the gun she’s stuffed underneath and made
sure it was loaded. “Let’s go.”

2011 Best Book to Bring On Smiles
– Buried in Briny Bay by Bobbye Terry (read May 2011, review here)

Wow this was a tough category. I had Janet Evanovich,
Julie Garwood, Jill Shalvis and Pamela DuMond all grouped together for this category. But I think the crazy sisters, Roxie and Trixie just had to come out on top.
What a feel good book Buried in Briny Bay was as it kept me smiling from the
first page till the last.

“Did it ever
occur to you that you were going a little overboard?” Greg couldn’t help but
smile. For some odd reason, her quirkiness appealed to him.

“Not
really.” Roxie beamed. “I was having too much fun. I especially liked the look
on the preacher’s face when I mentioned I had missed church because I was
researching murdering somebody by asphyxiation. I proceeded to explain the
proper method for placing a pillow over the person’s head. But first, I thought
it only fair I drug the fool.”

Greg
chuckled. “Now you’re kidding me, right?”

Trixie shook
her head. “Dead serious, not to make a pun. She even talked to Alan, the guy
who runs the auto repair about how to sever a brake line and make it look
accidental. That’s my sister, the sick one in the family.”

Wow what a tough category. I don’t read a lot of Paranormal but
I do love Urban Fantasy so I combined them into one category. However the books
that I did read in 2011 that fell within this category was so hard to choose
from. Karen Marie Moning, J.R. Ward, Patricia Briggs, Jeaniene Frost, Shayla
Black and Larissa Ione were all competing for top spot. With many of the above authors, I read their entire
series back to back so I fell in love with all their stories. However, Nalini's Kiss of Snow came out on top. I just loved that book and I had been anticipating Hawke and Sienna coming together so badly. The Kiss of Snow was spectacular.

“You have the power to tear me to pieces, to wound me so
deep and true that I‘ll never recover. What Rissa‘s death did to the boy I was?
You have the ability to do a thousand times worse to the man I‘ve become."

“You’re in my every breath and every thought, intertwined so
deep inside me that love’s not a strong enough word—you have my devotion, your
name branded on my soul, my wolf yours to command. A hundred years? It’ll never
be enough. I want eternity.”

I could have made this category best Contemporary Series and
it would still would have won. In The Sweetest Thing I was romantically swept away to a town with
characters I fell in love with. Ford was the kind of hero that I have been waiting
to have been written for a long time. I love a man that has humour and is oh so sexy. It is
such a hard combo to pull off and Jill Shalvis did effortlessly.

“So this superhero thing,” he went on. “All the skills I
have, you’ve already seen. I’m guessing I do okay in the body department,
because you seem to like it well enough. After all, just a few nights ago you
were licking my –“

At this point, there seemed to be a scuttle with the
phone, and Tara could hear Sawyer in the background saying, “Just hang up man,
or I’ll do it for you and consider it a public service.”

“Back off,” came Ford’s voice, and then another tussle. “Some
people have no fuckin manners,” he said, slurring slightly. “I want to know
that if I could be your superhero, I totally would. But there’s no way my ass is
gonna wear a pair of tights, not even for you.” He paused thoughtfully. “I
could do sex slave, though. That seems like a fair trade, right?”

I think 2011 was year of the historical romance novels for
me. I am pretty sure out of the entire romance genre, the historicals were the
ones I focussed on the most. I just love them. 2011 was also the year I
discovered Julie Garwood. I am addicted to her writing style and I had almost
read every historical book she wrote this year. I only have a few left. Now I
just want to savour them because I know I am running out. Ransom was my favourite of the bunch if not my most favourite book of the year.

“She couldn't believe what she did then. Before she could
stop herself, she leaned up on tiptoes, put her arms around his neck, and
kissed him on the mouth. Her lips brushed over his for the barest of seconds,
but it was still a kiss, and when she came to her senses and dared to pull away
and look at him, he had the most curious expression on his face.

Brodick knew she regretted her sponatenity, but as
he stared into her brilliant green eyes, he also knew, with a certainty that
shook him to the core, that his life had just been irrevocably changed by this
mere slip of a woman.”

Well I hope you enjoyed my recap and my choices. It was so hard to pick them out. As always thank you for stopping by. Here's to a wonderful 2012.